


Speak No Evil

by Iaso



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Comedy, Disabled Character, Eventual Romance, Fluff, Gen, Original Character(s), Pre-Naruto Canon Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 21:26:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11193774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iaso/pseuds/Iaso
Summary: In which a voiceless girl derails the fate of the universe with her smile.





	Speak No Evil

"Mami, Obito Uchiha. Your jonin-sensei and your remaining teammate will be meeting with you shortly."

A wave of whispers passed through the group of children.

Mami ignored the giggling and pointing, the furtive glances being thrown her way. Those hadn't bothered her for years. Instead, her eyes sought out the boy across the classroom that she had been placed on a team with, who sat with his goggles atop his head and his lips pulled down in a pout.

She wasn't certain if he was pouting because he hadn't been placed on a team with Rin, who sat beside him and pat his hand in a show of comfort, if it was because he had been placed on a team with her, or if it was a combination of the two.

Her money was on that last option.

She would be lying to say she was thrilled to be on a team with him, though, so she didn't think she was in any position to judge.

The sentiment wasn't personal in nature—rather, her inhibitions about having to work with Obito in such a prolonged and intimate manner were more practical. The boy had never picked up on the shinobi sign language, nor did he have the literacy required to make up for that fact. Communicating with had been, and would continue to be, an uphill battle until he could improve on those fronts.

With that in mind, Mami gathered her stuff and stood from her chair, meandering over to where the two sat.

The room had begun to empty as the various jonin-sensei came to collect their students. Half of the children from her class were gone, with another two teams trooping out of the room as Mami wound her way through the rows of desks.

"Ah, Mami-chan," Rin said as she approached. "Hi."

" _Hello_."

Obito grinned—he seemed to know that one, at least. "Hey, hey, Mami-chan! We're on a team together!"

Mami gave him a smile of her own, a more toned down gesture. " _Yes_."

"It's so cool!" Obito cheered. "I wonder who our sensei is—I bet he's like, super awesome and strong and stuff!"

"Or she," Rin pointed out.

"Uh, right," Obito said, scratching his head, a sheepish laugh bubbling from his lips. "It could totally be a girl too."

Mami inclined her head, the motion sending a few stray violet locks sweeping down her arm, the tips of them brushing up against her hips. " _I am more interested in our teammate_."

Obito blinked and Mami could see the gears in his head turning. She reached into her hip pouch, pulling out the miniature notebook and pen that she always kept in there. In her usual neat strokes she wrote out the kanji for 'teammate' and held it out to Obito. His features lit up in recognition.

"Oh, yeah!" he said. "It's weird, I've never heard of them doing this type of thing."

Rin tapped her finger on her bottom lip. "They do it sometimes, when the graduate classes are uneven, like ours. It's always with jonin-sensei who have, like, an apprentice already."

Mami had never heard of that either.

Though, she supposed it made sense—the top kunoichi and top shinobi were typically put on a team together, along with the lowest ranking shinobi, for the sake of balancing out the teams. Knowing that, she had been expecting to be on a team with Obito and the top shinobi of their class, a boy named Toya.

Instead, Toya had been put on a team with the second-lowest ranking shinobi, another boy named Sadao, and the second highest ranking kunoichi, Rin.

Whoever their teammate was, Mami knew that they had to be special if the Hokage was willing to forgo the team placement traditions for their sake.

" _That is interesting_."

"Really, well—"

"Hey, Rin-chan," a voice from the front of the classroom called. Mami turned see Sadao and Toya waiting up at the front of the room, a woman who looked to be in her late twenties standing next to them. "Let's go."

Rin flushed. "Oh, right!" she cried, hurrying to gather her things. She stood, sending her chair flying back, flashing Mami and Obito as she flew down the stairs. "Bye guys!"

"Ah—bye, Rin-chan!" Obito said. "Good luck!"

Mami waved.

The room was nearly empty by that point. There was another group of children, huddled together on the other side of the classroom, but the rest of their peers had been picked up by their sensei and marched off to whatever it was that teams did on their first day.

Mami turned to face Obito. " _Do you know what we are going to be doing with our team_?"

"Uhm… what about our team?"

She jotted out 'do with team' and showed that to him.

"Oh! I don't know," he said. "I mean, maybe we'll get to train, and our sensei will show us some super cool jutsu!"

" _So fast_?"

"Well, eh. Maybe not, but I really hope so!"

Mami smiled. " _Maybe_."

She thought he was likely on the right track, though. The graduate class had been called in early in the morning, enough so that after their introductions were finished, there would still be an entire day of sunlight left to be used. Mami saw no reason for the jonin-sensei to delay the start of their students' training.

She was both nervous and excited at the prospect, her stomach jittering with butterflies. She wanted to prove herself. She wanted to show her new sensei what she could do, what she would be able to do given enough time. She wanted to prove that, no matter what some people may think of her, what they may claim, she could be a shinobi.

"Mami-chan, Obito-kun."

Mami shifted in her chair. Her eyes, which were such a dark shade of onyx that people often avoided meeting them, landed on the man who stood in the doorway of the room.

He had a shock of blonde hair sticking up around him, a soft smile, and blue eyes that were watching them with an even softer gaze—the naive part of her mind thought that he looked too kind to be a jonin, but the realistic knew better. She had heard, in fact, that the opposite was true, that it was those who looked the kindest that made the fiercest fighters. The ones who had something to protect.

She shook her thoughts from that path.

"Hey!" Obito exclaimed, jumping up from his chair. "You're our sensei, right?"

"That's me," the man said. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe. "Why don't you two meet me up on the roof—I'll see you there in five minutes, okay?"

Without waiting for them to reply, the man disappeared from view.

"Wha—where'd he go?"

That was a good question, but she suspected that her curiosities had a different source than Obito's.

Mami had never seen somebody use the body flicker technique without leaving a cloud of dust and leaves in their wake. If her jonin-sensei didn't have her attention prior to that, he would have grabbed it then. As it was, the man served to intrigue her.

" _We better go_."

"Right, yeah. I'll race ya'! First one to the top of the roof wins!"

In much the same fashion as their jonin-sensei, Obito flew from the room, sending desks and chairs scattering the room as he ploughed through them on his way to the door. She could hear the cries of a few people in the hallway, complaining of the racket.

She had to admire his enthusiasm, but she had no intentions of letting him win.

Mami waited for him to leave the room before she stood and made her way over to the window, lifting it open—he never said she had to take the stairs. She smiled to herself, settling on the sill and throwing her legs over, ensuring that her grip on the wall was firm before she stood up on it.

She couldn't wait to see his face.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you didn't pick up on it, dialogue that is entirely in italics means that Mami is signing out what she's saying.


End file.
